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Sourdough Baguettes

I wanted to make some baguettes today. I had some excess active firm starter. I usually make sourdough baguettes with a liquid starter, and my best sourdough baguettes take two to three days to make, but why not try a formula for one day baguettes with firm starter?

I decided

To make 3 ficelles weighing 200 g apiece.

At 70% hydration.

Using 25% pre-fermented flour.

And to use a bit of instant yeast to have the baguettes done before dinner time.

Total dough

wt. (g)

Baker's %

AP flour

323

93

WW flour

17

5

Medium rye flour

9

2

Water

245

70

Salt

7

2

Instant yeast

1/8 tsp

0.5

Total

601

172.5

Firm levain

wt. (g)

Baker's %

AP flour

46

70

WW flour

13

20

Medium rye flour

7

10

Water

33

50

Firm starter

33

50

Total

132

200

Final dough

wt. (g)

AP flour

262

Water

201

Salt

7

Instant yeast

1/8 tsp

Firm levain

131

Total

601

Procedures

Mix the firm levain and ferment for 12-14 hours at 70º F.

Mix the flour and water in the final dough to a shaggy mass and autolyse for 30 minutes.

Add the salt, yeast and the firm levain is 12 pieces to the dough and mix thoroughly. Transfer to a clean, lightly oiled bowl and cover tightly.

Ferment at 70º F for 2-2 1/2 hours with folds at 40 and 80 minutes. The dough did not double but showed many tiny alveoli. (Visible through the walls of my glass bowl.)

Divide into 3 equal pieces and pre-shape as balls or logs.

Rest for 20 minutes.

Shape as baguettes.

Proof at 70º F for 45-60 minutes.

Transfer the loaves to a peel and score as desired.

Bake at 460º F with steam for 12 minutes then in a dry oven for another 8-10 minutes. Note: These are light and thin loaves. For larger baguettes, the baking time would need to be increased to a total of 22-25 minutes. If a lighter-colored crust is desired, the oven temperature should be decreased to 450º F.

Cool for 30 minutes (at least) before eating.

I treated each of my three baguettes differently, as seen. I made one into an epi de blé, one into a seeded baguette and one was made as a traditional baguette.

The crust was crisp and the crumb was tender – just a bit chewy. The crumb structure was nice and open. The flavor was good, but not great. There was no perceptible sourdough tang and less sweet flavor and less complexity than I want in a baguette.

I think this formula, with the added yeast, resulted in a short fermentation that did not allow for full flavor development. In addition, the levain I used had been taken from my refrigerated stock starter and only fed once.

My judgement is that this formula is worth playing with. Next time, I will use a starter that has been fed at least twice and will omit the instant yeast.

Another go at baguettes. Made this weekend. 70:20:10 (AP:Bread:Whole Rye); 68% Hydration, Overnight retardation at 50°F. Excellent wheaty flavor, with an edge (probably the Rye). All the Bread flour was prefermented feeding the levain builds. This dough is essentially the same as that I mix for sourdough batards; only difference being 45;45;10 (AP:Bread: Whole Rye) flour ratios.

I had thought that, when I retired, I would tackle more complex breads and pastries. So far, my inclinations have been otherwise. I have been working on simpler recipes that can produce good breads with lesser time demands. Go figure.

This bread is an example. A baguette sur poolish is a classic bread. It can be produced in 5-6 hours (not counting the overnight fermentation of the poolish) and is at its peak of quality as soon as it has cooled. Yesterday I baked a sourdough adaptation of this classic bread, starting in the late morning to have fresh-baked baguettes with our dinner.

Liquid levain

Baker's %

Wt. (g)

Flour mix

100

100

Water

100

100

Firm starter (50% hydration)

40

40

Total

240

240

Notes:

The “Flour mix” is 70% AP, 20% WW and 10% whole rye flour.

I used my stock starter to feed the levain. It is kept at 50% hydration. Adjusting for this, the actual levain hydration is 89%.

Mix the levain ingredients and ferment for 8-12 hours. (My levain quadrupled in 6 hours and was refrigerated overnight.)

Final Dough

Wt (g)

AP flour

294

Water (80-90º F, if cold levain)

164

Salt

9

Liquid levain

240

Total

707

Note: The final dough hydration is 66%, accounting for the water and flour in the levain.

Procedures

Dissolve the liquid levain in the water.

Add the flour, and mix to a shaggy mass.

Autolyse for 20-60 minutes.

Add the salt, and mix thoroughly. Transfer to a clean, lightly oiled bowl and cover tightly.

Bulk ferment at 75º F for 3 hours with stretch and folds at 30, 60, 90 and 135 minutes.

Divide into 3 equal pieces and pre-shape as logs.

Rest for 15-30 minutes, covered.

Shape as baguettes and proof on a couche for 75-90 minutes.

Transfer baguettes to a peel and score.

Bake at 450º F with steam for 22-25 minutes. (I baked for 12 minutes with steam at 450º F then for 10 minutes at 425º F convection bake.)

Cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.

The crust was thin and crisp – as close to a classic baguette crust as I have produced with sourdough. The crumb was moderately open and chewy. The flavor was moderately sour – more sour than I expected. It was very nice with our dinner of soup (krupnick) and salad (lettuce with pecans, dried cranberries and Point Reyes blue cheese with a mustard vinaigrette).

After the last bake's attempt for flavor instead of holes, this bake was for baguette holes. I also had some hemp seeds burning a hole in my pocket so thought they would be appropriate. Burning, burning holes, holes and hemp are baggie proof and go way back to SF in the early 70's as far as I can personally attest.

I wanted to use txfarmer's 36 hour baguette method for a new variation that was different from all of her many variations. The holes she produces with this recipe, in all of its forms, are amazing - and holes were the main goal today. I wanted a new variation and Hanseata's Hemp seeds (scalded and then soaked for 4 hours) were the ticket. I want to thank them both for their inspiration. I did use a slightly different method by retarding the levain for 12 hours too, to go along with the 24 hour autolyse. Was trying to get more SD flavor and hoped for holes with this extra levain retard. The previous bake of 20% rye and WW had much better, deeper and lingering SD flavor - the taste of the bread was just better overall and more akin to my personal preference.

Got a nice crust with some blisters, some ears, some glossy holes, nice nutty taste from the hemp seeds, nice SD twang along some very poor slashing on one baguette as is usual for me. I give this bake an 87 or B+. Recipe follows pix. Use txfarmer's method and just retard the levain too.

The bread was more sour today and I am adding another crub shot of the lunch shot that follows. Bologna with cheddar cheese and greens, salad, a brie wedge, a radish, carrot and jicama sticks, olives, tomato, some refried black and red beans. Sorry for the smudge on the lens - never photograph while you eat! Took Dopey out of the title too since this bread isn't.

Some time ago, Pat (proth5) posted her formula for baguettes. This was in the context of our "great baguette quest" of some months back. We were playing with higher hydration doughs and cold fermentation à la Gosselin and Bouabsa.

Pat's formula is levain-based and employs a 65% hydration dough. She has insisted repeatedly that, while higher hydration is one route to a more open, holey crumb, fermentation and technique in shaping the baguettes are at least as important and that good technique can achieve the desired open crumb even with a dryer dough.

I followed this except I baked at 480F. I used Whole Foods 365 Organic AP flour. The result was an excellent, classic baguette with a crunchy crust and cool, creamy crumb. It was slightly sweet with imperceptible sourness when eaten just ... well, almost ... cooled.

Thesee baguettes are based on the formula given to Janedo by Anis Bouabsa, with Jane's modification - adding 100 gms of sourdough starter to the dough. The formula and method have been described in some detail in my last blog entry:

If these look substantially similar to those pictured in that entry, they are. My point is that this formula appears to be reliable and is yielding consistant and gratifying results for me.

That said, this batch was superior to the last in a some respects: First, the crumb is even more open. Second, the flavor is much better. It is very mildly sour but also sweeter. Third, the crumb has a chewier texture. Fourth, the shape of the cross section is more round. Fifth, my scoring was more consistant.

I did make a few modifications in ingredients and method. While these may seem trivial, I believe those of us who have participated in "The Great Baguette Quest" have found that these sorts of small differences make the difference between "good" and "great" results.

So, my modifications from the previous baguette bake were:

1. My starter was more fully activated when I mixed the dough.

2. I included the starter in addition to the flour and water to the initial mix that autolysed.

3. I got distracted and forgot to add the yeast and salt until the last set of stretch and folds. In other words, shortly before putting the dough in the refrigerator. The gluten tightened up dramatically and quickly after the salt was added, but it was pretty fully developed already. (This is not recommended, and I'm not sure what if any difference it made in the final product.) Because I wanted to be sure the yeast and salt were well distributed, I ended up doing more folds - probably 15-20 more, and this probably resulted in fuller gluten development which may have contributed to the open crumb.

4. Following foolishpoolish's lead, I rested the dough only about 30 minutes after dividing and pre-shaping, and I proofed for only 30 minutes. (Bouabsa rests 45 minutes and proofs for 60 minutes.)

I am not much of a baguette fan, generally speaking, but this batch was good enough to motivate further baguette adventures.

As promised, I made some baguettes using Nury's Light Rye dough from Daniel Leader's "Local Breads." I followed Leader's recipe except for using a couple tablespoons less water, thinking it might work better for baguettes. In hindsight, I don't think this improved the product.

For those not familiar with the recipe, it is documented in Zolablue's original posting of her baking of this bread.

This was an excellent thread. It led me to make this bread myself for the first time, and it remains one of my very favorites.

Leader's recipe calls for patting out the mass of fermented dough into a 10 x 10 inch rectangle, cutting it in half with a bench knife and gently transferring the cut pieces to floured parchment, then immediately baking it on a stone with steam. For these "baguettes," I simply sliced off 3 portions, about 2.5 cm wide each, and stretched them gently to 12 inches as I laid them on the parchment. I baked with steam at 500F for 10 minutes, then removed the skillet and loaf pan with the water and turned down the oven to 440F. The bake time was 17-20 minutes, total.

The baguettes are beautiful, in a very rustic way. The crust was very nicely crunchy, and the crumb was chewy. The taste was wonderful, as it always is with this recipe. The main difference between these baguettes and the "proper" Nury Light Rye is that the baguettes have proportionally much more crust, and the crust stays crisp rather than softening.

My efforts to make traditional baguettes will continue, but this version is one I'll be making again.

I'm not going to do a detailed critique of the numerous, numerous flaws in these baguettes (nor am I really asking for comment other on the topic - I am my own worst critic), but I will focus on their shapes as pulled from the oven.

Gallant - the one on the top- of the picture has some nice symmetry and in general a pleasing shape.

Poor old Goofus has a slash that didn't open well and on the right (your right as you look at the picture) is somewhat scraggly and mis-shapen. Before I put them in the oven I could have predicted that fate. How?

My hands, my dough, but on Goofus, I failed to remove sufficient flour from the dough prior to shaping and to completely clear the bench of flour (residual from the loaf and just got a tiny bit sloppy with clearing the bench - it's hot - the oven is at 500F - oh, excuses, excuses...). When I did the final shaping on Goofus, I had the "ball bearing" effect of the flour - the dough would not roll properly - it slid around on the bench. I worked at it to get an even shape (This was the only difference in the shaping. Consistency may be the bugaboo of little minds, but it is what I do best.)but all was lost. Even though it looked even as I laid it on the couche, it was destined to have a flaw. Same with the left side. The extra flour caused an improper seal and you can see a distinct spiral. It looked ok as dough, but it was destined to bake poorly. I pulled myself together to shape Gallant.

To avoid having to be sent back to "the place" - I will admit that I did a few things right. I particularly like Gallant's grigne - which are not seen to best advantage in this shot.

So big problems from little mistakes grow... It pays to pay attention to the details.

I have been trying various formulas and techniques to make baguettes that have "classic" crust, crumb and taste. This is not them, of course, but I have also wanted to see if the pain de compagne dough, which has such a wonderful taste in a boule, would also make a good baguette. Well, the crumb structure and the taste are essentially identical to the boule. The baguette just has proportionately more crust.

The baguettes were scaled to about 10 oz. I preshaped them according to Hamelman's technique in "Bread," let them rest for 10-15 minutes, then formed the baguettes. I should have let them rest longer. The dough was very elastic. I attempted to be as gentle as possible in handling the dough. I proofed them for about 45-50 minutes only, until they were just swelled a bit, then baked with steam, starting at 500F and reducing the oven to 460F after 10 minutes. The total bake time was 25 minutes. They rested in the turned off oven with the door ajar for 10 minutes more.

The combination of the stingy proofing and the hot oven resulted in enormous oven spring. The bloom practically obliterated my cuts. For this "rustic" baguette, I'm not unhappy with the effect.

A word about how I steamed the oven: Hamelman's suggested method of oven steaming for the home baker was used. The oven was preheated with a pizza stone on the middle shelf and a loaf pan and a cast iron skillet on the bottom shelf. Just before spraying the loaves with water and scoring them, I placed about a cup of ice cubes in the loaf pan. Just after loading the loaves, I poured about a cup of boiling water into the skillet. The door was opened briefly at 10 minutes to remove the loaf pan and skillet. I did not spray water into the oven.

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